Dryland soils Raw sequence reads. soil metagenome

We characterised the bacterial and fungal communities of biological soil crusts (biocrust; 0–1 cm depth) and the subsurface soil (1–2 cm depth) inan area typical of lightly grazed Kalahari rangelands, composed of grasses, shrubs, andtrees. Biocrust microbial community structure is likely to affect functioning of soils (e.g. resistance to erosion, carbon storage) but to date very little is known about the microbes in biocrusts. This study reveals in detail for the first time the bacterial and fungal communities of biocrusts in the Kalahari.